Saturday, February 25, 2012

Virtual + Real

Dear Tom

The aspect of a virtual world remains an interesting topic to discuss and research. Because more and more people are becoming involved with alternate digital worlds, it is important for others to understand not only what attracts one to it but also understand how consumers look at the world in comparison to the real physical world. Reading your article was interesting because it provided many different opportunities to analyze how people view those who participate in online worlds such as second life. For those who are new to a digital world, they are becoming completely open to a new world essentially. Newbies, noobs, novices or what have you all exist and don't remain at that status for too long because depending on the virtual world the person may begin to spend an extended amount of time there. As for the portion of your article that mentions the three women Laura, Kimmy, and Betty Anne, an interesting point was brought up: "birth." Entering a virtual world is viewed as a birth because you are new, you are fresh, and it is your first time. However questionable that may be, those who participate heavily in online worlds can understand.

Being a part of a virtual world provides the user with a separate identity. Online, you have the ability to become someone that you possibly cannot be in real life. Of course there are those who really represent themselves the same way online and offline, but in the case of second life there are a number of individuals who choose to be represented by inanimate objects or varying characters other than themselves. The ways that you viewed researching this subject were able to use different points of view to get the point across. The virtual world especially Second Life for this example are sometimes examples of real world places in a virtual environment. And for that to happen we look at the world from different perspectives.